The Indonesian government has said that the national rice stock is enough to cover the nation’s needs for the next seven months.

“As of now, our national rice stock stands at 2.1 million tonnes and this is enough for 7.7 months. This is quite an adequate stock rate,” Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa told reporters after a meeting with the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) at his office in Jakarta yesterday.

Regardless of the adequate national rice stock, Agriculture Minister Suswono said that the government would still import a maximum volume of 1 million tonnes of rice this year.

Suswono said the import was needed to fill the target of 2 million tonnes held in the Bulog’s rice reserve by the end of the year.

“Bulog’s rice reserve stock is estimated to stand at around 1 million tonnes by the end of this year...This means the government will need to make up the deficit with imports,” Suswono said.

Suswono said that the permission to import 1 million tonnes of rice had been issued by the Trade Ministry. However, it was likely that the government would only import 700,000 tonnes to cover rice reserve requirements.

Hatta stressed that Bulog needed to maximise its rice procurement from local farmers before the government moved on import plans.

“The main issue is not whether we have enough stock but rather how to strengthen our reserves. We want a strong reserve to prevent speculation and price fixing,” Hatta said.

The government had predicted that Indonesia’s total rice production might stand at 38 million tonnes this year, while consumption would reach 34 million tonnes. This means that the country would be able to book 4 million tonnes in rice surplus.

Deputy Agriculture Minister Rusman Heriawan said that in order to achieve food security, Indonesia would need 10 million tonnes of rice surplus annually.

Indonesia was self-sufficient in 2008 and 2009, however, it started to import rice to maintain its reserves in 2010 after a failure in harvest expectations.

Shrinking farmland areas and lower productivity have been regarded as the main factors that determine the country’s dependence on imports.

Hatta said that in order to alleviate a potential food crisis, the government had also allocated 2 trillion rupiah (US$104 million) to emergency food funds.